Microsoft Adds New Features to Office 365 Education

Microsoft has added a couple
of new features to its Office 365 Education portfolio of
products for students
and teachers.

In April, the
company released Microsoft
Classroom, which provides course management
operations for teachers. For school IT staff, an updated Windows
Imaging and Configuration Designer tool would
let them
set up shared devices in bulk for classroom scenarios where students
share
devices. Finally, an updated release of Windows 10 offered Windows Ink,
a technology that
enables the user to write on his or her device as if it were paper.

Now, Microsoft has introduced two new features in
time for the new school
year.

First, a version of Microsoft Classroom and a new
software product called
School Data Sync will help IT administrators connect existing school
systems to
Office 365, enabling a single sign-on for teachers and students while
automating Microsoft Classroom set-up.

Microsoft representatives described School Data Sync as
"the easiest way to
provision online classrooms in Office 365 Education." It will also
allow
teachers to create and manage online classes and then connect that data
with
third-party apps or other databases that the schools might rely on.

An advancement on Windows Ink is OneNote Ink that
now — in addition to
letting students shade, sketch, draft, save and share ideas —
recognizes math
equations. The belief is that students will now be able to show their
thought
processes while working on math problems and teachers can better
identify the
gaps in understanding.